Claiming ignorance to every past or archived post …
Is it easy to camp within a short drive of everything ?
Will a groggy, road weary car camper get hassled for sleeping @ venue ?
Long Way 4 U
Patrick, are you planning to race the B&B?
I am attempting to see how I can streach my available days to maybe slide down there. Hum, I’ll have a good paddle for it, :
be great to meet everyone!
I really hope all of you come down for the Bogey and Bacall. It would be great to associate faces with names etc.
Might even have an adult beverage or two…
Paul
Busy time in the Keys…
…but I know the are still campsites available at Key Largo Kampground for those dates, about two miles from the site and great kayaking.
http://keylargokampground.com/index.html
More B&B Info
Well blame it on JackL, I am looking and figuring. I have a few questions. I just left yahoo maps and driving down to the keys is not as bad as I had remembered. Yahoo says that it is 853 miles from Wilmington, NC and it will take just over 13 hours.
I looked at the Bogie map and I am wondering how sloppy it can get in the part of the race outside, or the part that is most of the second half of the race. Will I be able to find tent camping close that time of year? (you guys warned me out of attmepting a trip down there in late December.) It does look like a large number of boats compete and it should be fun. The race is on a Saturday, what do you think of a long drive Friday, race Sat, rest Sunday, second long drive Monday?
Happy Paddling,
Mark
conditions…
There are races on both days however Sundays is shorter and near shore. I would say worst case maybe two foot short chop. It all depends on if the wind is up and which direction it is blowing. In any case half the course will be fine… 
JackL
Hi Jack,
I know you and Nanci are heading down south for an extended stay. Are you going to be at the campgrounds that GrayHawk posted a link to for the B&B race?
Happy Paddling,
Mark
Hi Mark,
We are at America Outdoors which is only a few miles down the road from the B & B.
I don’t know if you can still get reservations, but give them a call and try it.
We have reservations at John Pennekamp State Park which we made last March from jan 26 thru jan 31. Then into America Outdoors until the Bacll day. Then on Monday the 6th of Jan we go back to Pennekamp for six more days.
Cheers,
jackL
This is the water condition
in last years Bogey;
http://community.webshots.com/photo/302889059/302889059YDcmmP
It is “Canunut” finishing second to Greg Barton.
If you had a magnifing glass you could see myself, Grayak and Grayhawk several miles back in Dusenbury Creek!
If you recall how squirelly the water was when we came around the spoils into Masonbory Inlet in the Wrightsville Beach race, most of the Bogey last year was like that.
I have paddled the same course though when it has been as flat as a pancake.
Cheers,
jackL
Holy Cow Pat…
– Last Updated: Dec-12-05 5:38 AM EST –
How far is that for you?
See my post to Mark below on where we are staying.
Another thought is a place where you can almost be guaranteed to get a camp site, but it is about a hour to a hour and a half away, and you would have to check with the Everglades National Park to see if they are open (they were closed from the hurrican damage the last I heard)
It is the Long Pine Key camp ground in the Everglades National Park.
During a normal season, you can drive in there in the middle of the winter and there are dozens of camps sites available, and the cost is the lowest of anyplace.
Most RV people are evidently not nature lovers like us paddlers and are looking for a bunch of luxury amenities instead of rustic beauty.
Cheers,
Jackl
That Water Looks Nice
In the back of my mind I have this thought of you telling me about a race, (I thought the B&B), where you were fighting skyscraper high waves and could not hardly turn around at the mark. That mental picture is likely a bit much for me at this stage, LOL.
Mark
That was the Bacall…
the year before last, but I never said anything about 'skyscraper waves"
It was very rough, but nothing that an experienced paddler couldn’t handle, ( of course “experienced” is in the eyes of the beholder).
I am guessing that you would have handled it well and at the finish you probably would have said like I did, that “this kayak is a keeper”.
The coure was supposed to be three miles out and then three miles back, but at the urging of the Coast guard, (they threatened to pull the permit), they changed it to parallel the shore about a hundred yards out, and it was three two mile laps.
Since the wind was blowing straight down the course, you were either straight into it and with a good skirt on had no problem at all except for enjoying the breaking waves coming at you and then on the down wind leg surfing a couple hundred feet on each wave that you caught.
The bouy turns was where I said a few “oh sh-ts”, but still managed to make them.
I did implore my wife to drop out as we passed in opposite directions on the first lap and she complied, but has bitched to me about it ever since.
It turned out to be a good spectator event for all the hotel people along the shore so they decided to make that the permenant course.
Cheers,
JackL
TRUE, JACK, BUT IT’S A SCHLEP…
…and a half, and intuitively counterproductive. You’re driving north about -what is it -8-10 miles? -back up to the Anhinga Main Station, then another 5-6 miles (?) north to Robert Is Here, then east to US 1, then south about 24-25 miles to FBO.
But also -unfortunately -you’re right about 2 things: ENP, I don’t think, is yet open throughout (they may -MAY -have opened Flamingo to angling & boating by now, apparently gor power back to more than skeletal amounts perhaps a couple weeks ago), son Long Pine may or may not be available, and it just may be the only area readily available -IFF open -as time marches on and the B&B draws near.
MARKINNC? The one you recall is as Jack notes the Bacall. In 2004 it was “The Edition of Attrition” -of the almost 70 or so who signed up, only 37, I think it was, started, and about 10 or so of theose folks may have dropped out as it was kind of blustery and choppy -and for us thin-skinned and even thinner-blooded expatriate northerners who now live in the alleged (at least for THAT weekend, LOL!) Sunshine State (our nickname is now either the Plywood State, the SHutter State, or the Insurance Went Up Again State, take your pick), it was cold weather.
But as some have noted, that course was run parallel to shore when the Coasties didn’t want it to go 3 miles out to the turnaround buoy and back -I don’t know if it will return to that configuration again, because of all the boat traffic coming & going from the marinas & restaurants that dot the shore on Blackwater Sound, upon which the race is run.
At any rate, to all those considering a trip down, START WORKING THE PHONES & NET NOW!!! Space is at a premium in the winter, and the added demands placed on local lodgings by B&B folk make getting rooms more and more difficult as the race approaches.
It’s a great event, made doubly nice by -despite us native’s whinings -good weather compared to where our northern entrants come from.
So c’mon down, y’all, sign up at the FBO site at:
http://www.kayakfloridakeys.com/
Click on events, and then the B&B, where you’ll see all the information you need to enlist, and in February, to join the throng &
PADDLE ON!
-Frank in Miami
AND PATRICK? DO COME DOWN!
And meet and greet a shop that’s sweet, and many of us P-Netters who travel from afar to race, enjoy Jack’s Favorite Painkillers, and
PADDLE ON!
-Frank in Miami
Real Time Conditions…
Can be found here. This bouy is offshore in open water so wind will vary in the more sheltered areas that the race is held. A cold front is coming through today and the wind is up a bit.
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=MLRF1
It is doubtful that ENP will have any campsites up and running in time.
Thanks Rick…
we just added that to our favorites under “River Levels”
We are hoping to race our Jensen in the Bacall this year weather permitting just so Baldpaddler and Red Cross Randy won’t be so lonesome.
cheers,
jackL
Hey Pam Browning…
will we see you down there this year?
I have had the yak a few years now,and am a little better at it, so I promise I won’t get cross wise in front of you at the start again.
Cheers,
JackL
Yeah, and I’ll try not to…
… bump your stern (B&B 2004?).
We have trouble planning on dinner…
let alone a couple months ahead … but still thinking about it… might be a spur of the moment thing and was fishing around for spots to just show up at for a day or two.
Every year I say …" I gotta get down there."
Thanks all for the info.
I’m glad this wasn’t about that other
B and B.